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Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end (a future and a hope).  Then you shall call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will listen to you.  And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.  And I will be found of you, says the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity...

This passage reveals the Father's heart.  

As I write this, I sit upstairs in my "en suite" (so affectionately called) in the home where I grew up.  Never did I think after college, I would be back.  I fought against it.  'What would the world think?  What would my parents think?  What would I think?'  And then, sad to say, after I considered those other voices first, I finally thought: what would God think?   

At the time, it didn't make any sense. I had no future to speak of and no dreams on the horizon.  I was fine, if "fine" means "leading a life of quiet desperation," as Henry David Thoreau put it.  But I knew deep down, home was where I was supposed to be for this season.  So finally, I obeyed that still, small voice and I went home.  It was here that God imparted to me a vision for my future so stark and so clear that I never had dreamed of before and I never would've guessed.  He, in fact, captured my heart again. 

Of course I didn't know that then, at the time when He called me home.  It was a giant leap of faith for me then, to defy the world's stereotypes and my own pride.  But in my heart I knew that God had something more in store.  I had taken some time away, but it was time to come back and make peace with the past.  After all, every hero has a homecoming (that may well be the only thing I remember from reading Homer's aptly named "epic poem," the Odyssey, in AP English class in high school).  It's been a time of restoring the foundations of my life, where cracks had seeped in.  Learning how to love my family and realizing that I have a role to play here.  That suddenly my dreams somehow only take on meaning in the context of other people's lives.  That I'm not an island.  As I've spent three years in pursuit of my professional degree, the most important thing I've learned has been how to love my family and to love others.  Suddenly, the next generation has become exceedingly important as I watch my beautiful niece and nephew grow up before my eyes.  My life is not my own.

I love America.  (Some of you are chuckling right now at the understatement of the century.)  God bless the United States of America.  But one thing her people need to learn is how to live as a family.  I don't just mean your genetic family, I mean as a people.  To love one another.  Our lives matter in a greater context than just we ourselves.  I see the subtle, insidious pull that calls us to strike out on our own as rugged individualists, to make a career and a name for ourselves.  To cut ties with our past and families.  To make a dream all our own.  I've felt that pull on my own life.  But as an observer of hearts and people, I've seen too many people make it to the top of their careers, so young in the scope of eternity, only to find that it's lonely at the top.   Realizing much later on that maybe people mattered more than previously thought.  As my dear friend reminded me yesterday, we can learn these lessons now or at age 60 (or older).  Our choice. 

Join me in forgetting that rugged individualistic mentality for a moment.  

Where is God calling you?  “Home” may be on the other side of the world.  The geographic place matters not.  Whether God calls you to the outhouse or the White House, or anywhere in between, I pray our hearts are willing and obedient to say "Yes, sir!"  Where doesn’t matter.  What matters is that we are smack dab in the center of God’s will for our lives.  Why?  Because He has the best for us.

When we step out and take that challenge, He will make your dreams come true.   (Shhh...listen in... I've got a secret for you: when He makes our dreams come true, His dreams come true, too - because He's the one who gave us those dreams!)  We know God is gracious and giving.  Whenever we step out in obedience to Him, He will not only let us have our cake, but eat it, too (Isaiah 1:19).  After all, He is the one who does exceeding abundantly beyond all we can ask or think.  (Ephesians 3:20).  

By God’s grace, I see my own dreams unfolding before my eyes every day.  Looking backwards, I'm beginning to see where all the pieces fit.  I am convinced that God's a smart dude and He knows what He's doing.   I'm the one who needs the perspective shift.   

Praise the God who makes our dreams come true.   Don't be afraid to take the next step with God, wherever that may lead.  He has plans for your peace, not your harm, to give you a future and a hope.  Peace, be still, and know that He is God. (Psalms 46:10).